Kolkata, March 23: Under fire from the opposition after eight persons – six women and two children – were burnt alive by a mob in Birbhum district’s Bogtui village, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she would visit the trouble spot on Thursday. The state’s opposition parties have accused the Banerjee government of suppressing facts and downplaying the number of casualties in the gruesome incident on Tuesday, which has sent shockwaves across the nation and stirred the political cauldron in the state.
Banerjee said she would have visited the site on Wednesday itself, but chose to delay it by a day as the principal opposition parties have rushed to the village in Rampurhat block, around 200 kms from Kolkata. “I wanted to visit today )Wednesday) but a lot of them have gone to show their faces, I will not go so long they are there,” Banerjee said. Banerjee also took potshots at the BJP after video footage emerged of its Bogtui-bound delegation’s bus parked beside a famous sweet shop in Purba Bardhaman district’s Shaktigarh.
“I heard they stopped on the way to savour langcha (local sweet delicacy) and are going to Rampurhat. I don’t know when they will return. Because I don’t want to fight with them there, I will go tomorrow (Thursday).” Banerjee said during a meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium here. The mob fury followed the murder of the Trinamool Congress-run Barshal village Panchayat’s deputy chief Bhadu Sheikh, on Monday evening. Four miscreants hurled crude bombs at Sheikh, leaving him fatally injured, when he was at a roadside tea stall near his house.
As news of Sheikh’s death spread in the area, villagers of Bogtui went on a rampage, torching a number of houses, leading to the deaths However, after the news came to light, officials initially put the number of casualties at ten. Later state Director General of Police Manoj Malaviya said eight persons had died. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari has claimed the toll was 12. The police said two FIRs have been filed—one over Sheikh’s killing and the other in connection with the torching of houses and people. Around 22 people have been arrested. UNI
